I’ve seen the news about the FBI working on cases and I’m wondering if their agency is a federal police force or just an investigative agency.
I’ve seen the news about the FBI working on cases and I’m wondering if their agency is a federal police force or just an investigative agency.
Comments
They are federal law enforcement.
They have police/arrest powers and a massive investigative arm.
The FBI is law enforcement yes
> Does the FBI consider them police?
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It depends on how you’re defining “police”.
> I’ve seen the news about the FBI working on cases and I’m wondering if their agency is a federal police force
>
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is a federal agency. What do YOU mean when YOU say “police”? Can they arrest people? Absolutely.
> Currently, the FBI’s top priorities are:
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We have a bunch of different arms of law enforcement that have different responsibilities and jurisdictions.
Their authority is going to be on a case-by-case basis, details matter.
The FBI is a federal law enforcement agency with special agents that have powers of arrest and are primarily focused on federal criminal investigations, counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence. They also have a security police division called the FBI Police with uniformed federal police officers that protect FBI facilities in a few places in the eastern part of the US.
Neither is “police” in the traditional sense of the word, i.e. patrolling the streets, doing general law enforcement, responding to 911 calls, etc.
Yes. They’re the equivalent of national police in other countries.
They are cops just a very specialized breed of them.
Police do investigate. They are the federal Bureau of investigation, So yeah, they’re a police force that investigates him and enforces the laws or they used to before Trump
Local police, state police, FBI, NSA, CIA, each has a different jurisdiction. Yes there is overlap but they coordinate.
I think the issue is that most Americans believe the word “police” is synonymous with the term “law enforcement.” My husband is retired law enforcement not retired police. He was a Sergeant in the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s Departments have different duties than local police departments just like State Troopers and the FBI have different duties. They are all law enforcement agencies. The term “police” implies specific duties that many law enforcement officers don’t regularly engage in.
They are not out giving tickets to generate revenue for the state greed. The enforce federal law.
“law enforcement agency” is a term that can be used for local city police and federal agencies like FBI & ATF.
I don’t consider them police but federal agents.
If I’m in front of an FBI agent and I punch a third person in the face of the blue, the FBI agent has no ability to arrest me. He’ll have to call 911 and get police like any other person.
Federal agents have no general law enforcement capability and can only enforce federal law. Meanwhile, at least here in Arizona, any regular law enforcement agent certified by AZPOST can enforce any law with arrest anywhere in the state. They are not confined by the jurisdiction of the locality that hires them, they simply have to hand over the suspect to the local authorities after arrest.
So no, FBI agents aren’t police in the same way a postal inspector isn’t either. They are federal law enforcement that are confined to enforcing very limited sections of federal law.
FBI is just federal police. But they are all detectives
Investigators at a local level are police, law enforcement. Investigators at the federal level are also police.
I think you think of police as beat cops, but it’s really just a general term for law enforcement.
The FBI has two basic jobs: enforcement of federal law (but not state or local laws), and counterintelligence (i.e. catching spies and other national security stuff).
So some agents work kind of like “national police officers”, but not all.
So for instance, to compare to the United Kingdom, the FBI is a bit like combining the National Crime Agency with MI5.
They are federal law enforcement, but they do not do day-to-day policing. Instead they investigate and once they have a case they cannot lose (their conviction rate is higher than 90%), they make an arrest and indict. The average person will never see much less interact with them.
Cop here:
They’re federal law enforcement. They’re technically police but they do not function as what most people would consider police.
They are mostly an investigative force but do take direct enforcement action in certain situations.
They don’t say, patrol and pull people over, but they will execute federal warrants.
I mean they aren’t your friendly neighborhood police officers but they are law enforcement on a federal level.
Definitely police, they can arrest on their own and have their HRT teams to kick in doors if needed.
They consider themselves police because they are police. They are a specalized federal law enforcement agency, but still at the end of the day they are police.
The FBI has national authority and deals with things like national security, terrorism, cyber crimes, kidnappings across state lines, bank robberies, tracking fugitives and disrupting organized crime for example. They have superior power to any state or local police. They don’t do everyday policing like giving out traffic tickets.
They are police, but nobody calls them “police officers” or “cops.” You’ll more likely hear terms such as “federal agents” or “federal law enforcement.”
They consider themselves to be like police.
The problem is the vast majority of them are basically lawyers who have never done anything remotely like police work.
They are the top-tier police in the United States. They answer to the president and have an academy that is considered one of the best schools in America. They are intelligent and motivated, and that’s why Trump hates them.
I honestly don’t think the OP asking about seeing the FBI on the news working cases was asking about the FBI uniformed building security detail.
An investigative agency in the US is a police force. There is no difference.
The FBI is a federal police force with a focus on investigating specific kinds of federal crime.
They are not police, the same way the Sheriff are not police, they are Federal Agents as in they go by Special Agent.
FBI is police, but with special differences. They’re a primarily investigative body, they’re not really enforcement. They’ve also got permission to cross jurisdictional boundaries when the investigation warrants it.
Yes and no. They’re Federal Law Enforcement Agency, but they’re only empowered to enforce federal law. They cannot enforce state, county, or municipal law. They can witness it, they can testify to it, but they cannot enforce (e.g., investigate or arrest) it.
Yes. They are definitely police. They actually have more power than your typical state police officer
Not at all trying to be a jerk here, but your question has a straightforward answer that is easy to Google or view the Wikipedia entry for. Americans individual input on what the FBI is would not really help you.
They are a federal police force, but they only investigate federal crimes. State and local laws are enforced by state and local law enforcement.
To be a federal crime it normally has to be a specific violation of a federal law or a crime that crosses state borders. One example would be a kidnapping where they took the victim to another state. Another example would be a murderer who killed more than one person in more than one state.
They have police powers but only for federal crimes.
Defund the police means the FBI, too, Comrades.
They’re the more serious and important federal police. They show up when it’s a federal crime and when local law enforcement isn’t up to the challenge
They are Federal police, not local police.
Omg being a copper is beneath their dignity. You could go to jail just for suggesting that
They are police in that they are a law enforcement agency that both investigates and makes arrests enforcing the law. BUT they are specifically enforcing only Federal laws and the vast majority of crimes are matters of only state law and not Federal law. Most day to day crime and even the most serious crimes such as murder are not in-and-of-themselves violating any Federal laws outside of some special circumstance that is covered by Federal laws such as the murder of a Federal official etc. This means that while the FBI are police they’re not doing the kind of day-to-day policing of crime that most people think of when they hear the word “police”.
Now there are some special circumstances when the FBI can get involved in doing the more usual police work of enforcing state laws right down to doing the kind of policing a beat cop might do.. They can be deployed during declared national emergencies to assist local law enforcement in a disaster area in which case they are deputized by the state to enforce state laws… So you could conceivably see FBI agents performing the normal policing duties of “lowly” local beat cop in a disaster area.
When the FBI is working closely with local law enforcement on cases that involve violations of both state and Federal laws all members of the task force working on the case may be “cross deputized” to enforce all relevant laws both state and Federal… So the local cops are deputized by the FBI to enforce Federal laws and the FBI agents are deputized by the state to enforce state laws so all members of the task force can investigate and make arrests for any of the crimes that were committed regardless of jurisdiction.
The FBI provides extra assistance to local police departments upon request when those smaller departments don’t have the resources to do certain investigative activities on their own such as fingerprint identification and labs.
See https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/organization-and-functions-manual-11-fbi-cooperative-and-information-services#:~:text=Cooperative%20Services%20of%20the%20FBI,and%20federal%20law%20enforcement%20agencies.